San Luis Valley serial killer sentenced to 5 life sentences for dismembering and burning bodies

ALAMOSA, Colo. (KRDO) -- A San Luis Valley serial killer was handed five consecutive life in prison sentences for orchestrating the murders of five people over a seven-week period in the fall of 2020.

Adre Baroz, 29, pleaded guilty to multiple crimes, including five counts of 1st-degree murder for killing, dismembering, and then burning the remains of five people in burn pits in Conejos County in 2020. Baroz also pleaded guilty to felony assault, tampering with a dead body, and kidnapping.

Baroz, who goes by the moniker "Psycho," was called "pure evil" by Alamosa District Court Judge Michael Gonzales Friday before being sentenced. Those are words Gonzales told the court he has never stated before in any criminal case before, signaling to the unique nature of a serial killer operating in the San Luis Valley.

12th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly agrees. She tells KRDO13 Investigates these types of crimes are exceedingly rare for a small, tight-knit community like Alamosa.

"This really was quite extraordinary. This is a rural place. So it's not sort of packed in like the metro area and allows someone like Adre Barros to maybe operate down here," DA Kelly said. "The depravity exhibited by this one man and the men that assisted him is unlike anything this community has ever seen. I appreciate Judge Gonzales, recognize it for what it was, it was pure evil."

Baroz's older brother, Julius, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder. Julius did not intervene when his brother, Psycho, was trying to slit the throat of one of his victims before shooting and killing him.

A third man, Francisco Ramirez, was also sentenced Friday to 24 years in prison for three counts of tampering with a dead body. Ramirez assisted Baroz in disposing of and burning the remains of multiple of his victims.

"I wasn't in the Valley when Adre Barros was murdering and dismembering our community members. But what I do know and what I've experienced is that is the lingering collective shock that rippled through this area when the details of what happened came to light," DA Kelly said.

District Attorney Kelly says she hopes these sentences will give the victims and their family members some justice after nearly four long years of prosecuting these crimes.

"This is devastating, absolutely devastating. I don't think words can really summarize how it would feel to lose a family member, not only lose a family member, but in this tragic and awful way," Kelly said. "I also know that there's no sentence here today that can ever sort of replace or even measure the pain that those families experienced."

These criminal cases were prosecuted by multiple prosecutors from Boulder County, where District Attorney Kelly was a prosecutor before being appointed to the role of 12th Judicial DA. She was later elected to the role and applauded the work they did in securing convictions for all three men involved.

"Boulder was able to give us those resources as our law enforcement agencies from across the state were able to come down here and give us those resources. I just wanted to make sure that the state knows how strong a community we have as prosecutors in the state," Kelly said.